The Mayoral Candidate Forum held Oct. 7th at the Hydro Building downtown attracted a full house of those who wanted to hear what the candidates had to say about the downtown area. This event was presented by The Downtown Biz, Institute of Urban Studies (U. of W) and The Exchange District Biz. The event moderators were Richard Cloutier of CJOB and Dan Lett of the Winnipeg Free Press.
Cloutier and Lett did do a really good job as moderators moving questions and answers along in a timely manner, including shutting down the candidates when they ran to long on any particular subject and of course we at the microphone got our hands slapped if we took to much time .
There was ten scripted questions put to the candidates, which the candidates answered prior to the forum. It would have much more interesting to see how the candidates would have reacted and what their answers would have been had the questions not been scripted and been allowed to answer prior to the event.
However, only two of the Mayoral candidates were invited to this forum. How can we take these forums seriously if ALL the candidates aren't invited? While Rav Gill and Brad Gross may not be the front runners in this election, it is manifestly unfair and quite biased to assume that Sam and Judy are the ONLY ones in the running for the position of Mayor or for that matter are the only ones qualified to be Mayor.
You might note that this report is a little different from the ones I usually submit, in fact it is more a commentary on what happened than an actual factual report which as I've already said has been done to death regarding the forum. So I figured I'd do something just a tad different.
We (joe blow public) have already been inundated with what was said at this forum by not only the MSM but also from the bloggers, of course that is assuming the candidates actually said anything at all. So what did we hear? Did we really hear anything new?
We found out Judy is in favour of a pedestrian mall which according to Judy would go somewhere in the Exchange district. Right and at -40c I'm going to be slogging my way down some pedestrian mall so I can go shopping, will you? Didn't think so.
That is assuming of course that housing can be put into place that would support such a mall. Though according to Sam Katz there is going to be a new apartment complex at the Avenue Building on Portage but will people really want to move onto Portage Ave.?
The whole idea is to bring new amenities downtown so people won't have to go to the suburbs to shop, bring grocery stores to the area, encourage people to give up their cars by increasing bus service (and of course rapid transit).
Both Sam and Judy spoke of increasing Active Transportation in the downtown area, though where such infrastructure is going to be placed neither one was able to say although Sam did include vehicular traffic as well as bikes and pedestrians. I have to wonder if the level of consultation will improve since the Assiniboine debacle or for that matter if the City Planners have learned anything at all.
Judy, in her scripted answer to the question of a revitalized downtown dealing with economic challenges of developing and redeveloping properties downtown, said "Winnipeg is fortunate to have some of the best-recognized planners, urban thinkers, planning advocates and green-minded architects in the country." Judy thinks we should "embrace" their expertise and their insights.
Ahh Judy we've already "embraced" their insights, it's called Berry St., Sherbrook, Nassau, Roslyn, Eugenie and Assiniboine. Look what those vaunted "best-recognized" planners, urban thinkers, planning advocates and green-minded architects have done to those areas and you really want to trust them to come up with ideas that aren't going to pander to the whims of special interest groups?
I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't trust them to come up with plans that made any sense whatsoever.
Of course parking made it's appearance at the forum. A question asked of the candidates by me regarding parking:
"Given that people were towed illegally with no compensation, people were ticketed under faulty machines and the ALPR system. And that consistently 50% of the machines were broken, misprogrammed or had illegal signage, also that machines were dropped on inner-city streets with no consultation. That there is no complaint department, and one complainer, according to the ombudsman had their privacy violated twice, another was assaulted at the parking store and the tape was never turned over to the police, my question is ... Where was the public and stakeholder oversight when these things happened and how are they held accountable? Also do the candidates think the Biz is trying to politically sell the wonders of the special operating agency system and not tell the whole truth to the public and candidates?"
Sam took a moment to explain what an SOA (special operating agency) is, which is basically (sorry Sam had to borrow that word from you for a bit), an agency of the City that is run as a business. There is a City Councillor who oversees the SOA's and that's Jeff Browaty.
After that, we heard nothing. Both Sam and Judy agree that these agencies need to be held accountable if there any wrong doings. Judy is all in favour of having an advisory board consisting of Councillors, stakeholders, CentreVenture, Downtown Biz and others sit on this board. Both Judy and Sam danced around the issues which were raised, neither was willing to offer any solutions to the problems instigated by the parking authority. Nor offer any solutions on how those problems could be fixed. Instead we hear about parking structures, on how we should get rid of surface lots.
Just where do the two candidates plan to park all the people who travel downtown with their cars? Oh wait parking structures, that's the answer. We were told that one was going to be built in the East Exchange another on the North side of Portage and another built on the South side of Portage (maybe near the new police headquarters). Anybody think that's going to make a huge dent in the parking issues if all the surface lots are gone.
Nobody mentioned that on York is a huge surface lot that doesn't belong to the City, but to the Province. Will the City force the Province to build a mammoth structure to house all the government workers? What about all the surface lots the City owns? They were never mentioned either.
In fact during this whole forum not much was mentioned at all. We heard campaign speeches from both candidates, we heard political rhetoric, we heard repeats of what has already been said before, nothing new came out of this forum. If I hadn't been busy taking notes I would have taken a nap and from those notes I got nothing. I could go back to various articles in the Free Press and many of the blogs to fill in the blanks at this forum, which really wasn't a forum without the other two candidates, and heard all the same things I heard on Oct. 7.
Perhaps Sam and Judy should stop offering sweet nothings into the ears of voters and start offering real solutions to the many problems facing this City. Instead of worrying about becoming a "world class City" we should concentrate on fixing sagging infrastructure, of getting our own house in order before we worry about the rest of the world.
We have serious problems in this City that need to be addressed, to date we have heard nothing from the main candidates that give the voters an idea as to how those issues will be dealt with after the election. Perhaps we will hear more concrete plans closer to the election, but for now it's yada yada yada..blah blah blah..heard it all before. And that folks was the crux of the whole forum, we heard it all before.
Cloutier and Lett did do a really good job as moderators moving questions and answers along in a timely manner, including shutting down the candidates when they ran to long on any particular subject and of course we at the microphone got our hands slapped if we took to much time .
There was ten scripted questions put to the candidates, which the candidates answered prior to the forum. It would have much more interesting to see how the candidates would have reacted and what their answers would have been had the questions not been scripted and been allowed to answer prior to the event.
However, only two of the Mayoral candidates were invited to this forum. How can we take these forums seriously if ALL the candidates aren't invited? While Rav Gill and Brad Gross may not be the front runners in this election, it is manifestly unfair and quite biased to assume that Sam and Judy are the ONLY ones in the running for the position of Mayor or for that matter are the only ones qualified to be Mayor.
You might note that this report is a little different from the ones I usually submit, in fact it is more a commentary on what happened than an actual factual report which as I've already said has been done to death regarding the forum. So I figured I'd do something just a tad different.
We (joe blow public) have already been inundated with what was said at this forum by not only the MSM but also from the bloggers, of course that is assuming the candidates actually said anything at all. So what did we hear? Did we really hear anything new?
We found out Judy is in favour of a pedestrian mall which according to Judy would go somewhere in the Exchange district. Right and at -40c I'm going to be slogging my way down some pedestrian mall so I can go shopping, will you? Didn't think so.
That is assuming of course that housing can be put into place that would support such a mall. Though according to Sam Katz there is going to be a new apartment complex at the Avenue Building on Portage but will people really want to move onto Portage Ave.?
The whole idea is to bring new amenities downtown so people won't have to go to the suburbs to shop, bring grocery stores to the area, encourage people to give up their cars by increasing bus service (and of course rapid transit).
Both Sam and Judy spoke of increasing Active Transportation in the downtown area, though where such infrastructure is going to be placed neither one was able to say although Sam did include vehicular traffic as well as bikes and pedestrians. I have to wonder if the level of consultation will improve since the Assiniboine debacle or for that matter if the City Planners have learned anything at all.
Judy, in her scripted answer to the question of a revitalized downtown dealing with economic challenges of developing and redeveloping properties downtown, said "Winnipeg is fortunate to have some of the best-recognized planners, urban thinkers, planning advocates and green-minded architects in the country." Judy thinks we should "embrace" their expertise and their insights.
Ahh Judy we've already "embraced" their insights, it's called Berry St., Sherbrook, Nassau, Roslyn, Eugenie and Assiniboine. Look what those vaunted "best-recognized" planners, urban thinkers, planning advocates and green-minded architects have done to those areas and you really want to trust them to come up with ideas that aren't going to pander to the whims of special interest groups?
I don't know about anyone else, but I wouldn't trust them to come up with plans that made any sense whatsoever.
Of course parking made it's appearance at the forum. A question asked of the candidates by me regarding parking:
"Given that people were towed illegally with no compensation, people were ticketed under faulty machines and the ALPR system. And that consistently 50% of the machines were broken, misprogrammed or had illegal signage, also that machines were dropped on inner-city streets with no consultation. That there is no complaint department, and one complainer, according to the ombudsman had their privacy violated twice, another was assaulted at the parking store and the tape was never turned over to the police, my question is ... Where was the public and stakeholder oversight when these things happened and how are they held accountable? Also do the candidates think the Biz is trying to politically sell the wonders of the special operating agency system and not tell the whole truth to the public and candidates?"
Sam took a moment to explain what an SOA (special operating agency) is, which is basically (sorry Sam had to borrow that word from you for a bit), an agency of the City that is run as a business. There is a City Councillor who oversees the SOA's and that's Jeff Browaty.
After that, we heard nothing. Both Sam and Judy agree that these agencies need to be held accountable if there any wrong doings. Judy is all in favour of having an advisory board consisting of Councillors, stakeholders, CentreVenture, Downtown Biz and others sit on this board. Both Judy and Sam danced around the issues which were raised, neither was willing to offer any solutions to the problems instigated by the parking authority. Nor offer any solutions on how those problems could be fixed. Instead we hear about parking structures, on how we should get rid of surface lots.
Just where do the two candidates plan to park all the people who travel downtown with their cars? Oh wait parking structures, that's the answer. We were told that one was going to be built in the East Exchange another on the North side of Portage and another built on the South side of Portage (maybe near the new police headquarters). Anybody think that's going to make a huge dent in the parking issues if all the surface lots are gone.
Nobody mentioned that on York is a huge surface lot that doesn't belong to the City, but to the Province. Will the City force the Province to build a mammoth structure to house all the government workers? What about all the surface lots the City owns? They were never mentioned either.
In fact during this whole forum not much was mentioned at all. We heard campaign speeches from both candidates, we heard political rhetoric, we heard repeats of what has already been said before, nothing new came out of this forum. If I hadn't been busy taking notes I would have taken a nap and from those notes I got nothing. I could go back to various articles in the Free Press and many of the blogs to fill in the blanks at this forum, which really wasn't a forum without the other two candidates, and heard all the same things I heard on Oct. 7.
Perhaps Sam and Judy should stop offering sweet nothings into the ears of voters and start offering real solutions to the many problems facing this City. Instead of worrying about becoming a "world class City" we should concentrate on fixing sagging infrastructure, of getting our own house in order before we worry about the rest of the world.
We have serious problems in this City that need to be addressed, to date we have heard nothing from the main candidates that give the voters an idea as to how those issues will be dealt with after the election. Perhaps we will hear more concrete plans closer to the election, but for now it's yada yada yada..blah blah blah..heard it all before. And that folks was the crux of the whole forum, we heard it all before.
If anyone wishes to read the scripted questions and answers for this forum, you can do so at the following address:
